Published: 15 February, 2013
by RICHARD OSLEY at the EMIRATES STADIUM

FA Premier League
ARSENAL 2, ASTON VILLA 1

THERE is a giant poster bang outside the Emirates Stadium which orders Andrei Arshavin to put in a bigger shift and suggests, given he sits on the substitutes bench for most matches as an expensive spare part in Arsenal's set-up, he could do his bit by cleaning the toilets. It's been erected by a betting company whose bare-faced cheek does not merit a namecheck here and is impossible to miss on your way into the ground from the Holloway Road approach. When the billboards surrounding your home fortress are revelling in the mockery, things are not going well. Effectively stripped of their last chances of silverware in a matter of days last week, Arsenal are left with a single target of finishing in the top four. The motivation for finishing above Spurs hasn't been this great since… last year, and the year before.

In this now annual tussle with Tottenham for the scraps left by the Manchester clubs and Chelsea, you could feel the palpable tension among the silent fans who recognised this afternoon that anything other than beating Aston Villa, enduring some of their worst troubles themselves this season, would not have been good enough. There had been talk of an eigth minute protest among the ratty home crowd, marking the years without a trophy. But that idea was blown away by the fact that's just about when Arsenal went ahead.

Santi Cazorla, the bright Spanish import this season who looks like he belongs in an Arsene Wenger team from the past and should be exchanging passes with Bergkamp and Pires rather than Jenkinson and Diaby, got it. His fierce shot from just inside the penalty area was blocked but the ball spun back into his stride and he poked it back under Brad Guzan.

It should have set the tone for a convincing victory. In those old days of Pires, Bergkamp and company an early Saturday afternoon goal usually opened the floodgates. The away teams wouldd have to come forward and Arsenal would pick off their visitors at will. Villa should have suffered the same fate but in a cold and subdued stadium where the fans chatter and players shouting was louder than any chant, there was no rampage. The Gunners home crowd do not help their team's situation. They are tetchy an dismissive. They grow their own anxiety.

So imagine the dismay when after 68 minutes of huffing and puyffing, mixing up half chances largely fluffed by Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott, Aston Villa used their sparky counter attack to break free from a Gunners corner and score an equaliser. Wojciech Szczesny who always seems so assured of his ability in press interviews might wonder how, given it was the only real task he was given in the second  half, allowed Andreas Weimann's stinger evade him. It looked even softer on the replays.

For fifteen minutes, Arsenal's last challenge this season, the challenge of clambering back into the top four, seemed to have been aborted in similar circumstances as their FA Cup and Champions League campaigns fell by the wayside this week (yes… there is a second leg against Bayern Munich, but a bit of realism doesn't hurt here).

It was fortunate that Aston Villa seem as devoid of confidence in defence as Arsenal. Jack Wilshere was able to find paths through the back four which Bayern Munich would never have allowed. Then with five minutes to play, the impressive Nacho Monreal, who must have wondered once or twice what kind of club he had arrived at in January during the transfer window, galloped clear on the left side and had the presence of mind to look up before passing. Walcott and Jenkinson could think a little about that. Monreal cut wider to Cazorla who swept home his second of the match with the composure that seemed lacking in everybody else when faced with a chance to score.

Now, the capricious home crowd did not know whether to be delighted at this late resuce or moan still about the fact the team had found themselves, albeit temporarily, in another mess in the first place. They left happy but unconvinced.

A draw would have been highly damaging with the north London derby just a weekend away. Everton's collapse at Norwich from a winning position seemed to have cut the chase for the Champions League places to the top five but Arsenal's fate won't be in their own hands if they don't win at White Hart Lane next week. For that, they will somehow need to heal the dithering in defence encaspulated unfortunately by Per Mertsackaer's decision-making. Imagine Gareth Bale running at him or Jenkinson.

The key for a happier outcome seems to lie with two men: Cazorla, who has found the form that gave him a lovable start to the season back in  August. And Wilshere, who is clearly the most important player now at the club. His spirit is the closest thing you will see  to a fan rolling up their sleeves and fighting their way through the opposing armaments with simple determination to win. If some of his desire rubbed off on his team-mates, there would be less tense afternoons than this ahead.